Many Nigerians close to having stroke — Adewole, ex-minister

FORMER Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, says many Nigerians are on the verge of having stroke, although many attribute it to myths and challenges that are preventable.

Adewole spoke at the closing of a two-day African Stroke Leaders’ Summit with the theme ‘Operationalise a Roadmap for Reducing the Burden of Stroke in Africa: Vision 2030’.

He stated that except Nigeria strikes at the core of it, and individuals make appropriate lifestyle changes, the risk of stroke will continue to loom on over many people.

The summit was organised by the African Stroke Organisation (ASO) in partnership with Africa-UK Stroke Partnership Project (AUKSPP) in Ibadan.

He stated that salt intake reduction, exercising and weight reduction are important lifestyle changes that evidence found to be protective against stroke.

Adewole declared: “We need to look at issues of salt reduction; adding too much salt, salted seasoners, monosodium glutamate, among others, are causing harm. Exercise needs to be promoted. Anybody who is black has a higher risk factor for stroke for several reasons.

“Being in Nigeria is a risk factor. Being a black person is a risk factor. Someone’s high blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke. We need to bring awareness to these issues and overall to state the fact that stroke is preventable and we can do without it.”

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Chairman, African Stroke Organisation (ASO) Council, Professor Adesola Ogunniyi, said the huge burden of stroke that Africa faces was what informed the passion to establish the African Stroke Organisation that was launched 20 months ago.

He declared that ASO had picked on four priority areas to develop and implement to reduce the burden of stroke in the next decade across Africa.

He added, “We are more or less laying the background to draw a road map for controlling stroke in Africa. And there will be another summit. This is just one of the many that will follow.”

Dr Rufus Akinyemi, chair, ASO Steering Committee, said a central working group is pooling all information on stroke in Africa to create a draft action plan to be circulated among its members for further refinement and launch at ASO’s next conference in October.

“Our goal is to have an African stroke action plan that will drive the subsequent programmes of ASO and we trust that countries, national society and regions will take a cue based on that foundation to develop action plans for their countries and their regions. We hope this will drive the effort to overcome the burden of stroke in the continent,” he added.